The insupportable validity of mosquito subspecies (Diptera: Culicidae) and their exclusion from culicid classification Author Harbach, Ralph E. 0000-0003-1384-6972 r.harbach@nhm.ac.uk Author Wilkerson, Richard C. 0000-0001-6366-1357 wilkersonr@si.edu text Zootaxa 2023 2023-06-15 5303 1 1 184 http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-04-22-0755-PDN journal article 53758 10.11646/zootaxa.5303.1.1 55cb0aa4-25b5-43fc-b545-54697a22b641 1175-5326 8043342 DE9C1F18-5CEE-4968-9991-075B977966FE Anopheles ( Anopheles ) bancroftii Giles subspecies bancroftii Giles, 1902 —original combination: Anopheles bancroftii . Distribution: Australia , Papua New Guinea , including the Admiralty Islands in the Bismarck Archipelago (Lee et al . 1987). subspecies barbiventris Brug, 1938 —original combination: Anopheles bancrofti [ sic ] var. barbiventris (subspecific status by Harbach & Howard 2007 ). Distribution: Indonesia , Sulawesi (Lee et al . 1987). Giles (1902) described Anopheles bancroftii , a widely distributed species in Australia (Lee et al . 1987), based on specimens from Burpengary, Queensland . Misidentification of An. pseudobarbirostris Ludlow, 1902 as An. bancroftii has resulted in erroneous listings of bancroftii in the Philippines , Sulawesi (Celebes) and Sri Lanka (Lee et al . 1987). Subspecies barbiventris was described from specimens collected in Kalawara, Palou, Gumbasa, Sigi Regency , Central Sulawesi , Indonesia (Gazetteer: GoeNames; Kalawara; populated place; coordinates: -1.1808 , 119.9385 ; D. Pecor pers. comm.). In the description, it was compared to An. bancrofti [ sic ] var. pseudobarbirostris (now a separate species), An. tessellatus Theobald, 1901a and An. vagus D̂nitz, 1902. Foote & Cook (1959) listed barbiventris as being from “Australasia”, which includes many countries, but it’s only known occurrence is in Sulawesi ( Celebes ). Harbach & Howard (2007) recognized barbiventris as a subspecies of An. bancroftii per Article 45.6.4 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and suggested that it was probably a distinct species. Reid (1962) , commenting on the bancroftii group, noted discrepancies in existing descriptions: “ A. bancroftii var. barbiventris from Celebes seems to merit specific rank; in addition to the striking tufts of black and white scales on the abdominal sternites [sterna], the large leaflets on the phallosome [aedeagus] appear to be longer than those of bancroftii and pseudobarbirostris and have fine teeth [serration]; doubtless there are other differences.” Herein, in addition to evidence of allopatry, we agree with Reid (1962) and Harbach & Howard (2007) that barbiventris should be afforded species status: Anopheles ( Anopheles ) barbiventris Brug, 1938 . Anopheles barbiventris is currently listed as a species in the Encyclopedia of Life. Note . A species complex is suggested by a molecular and morphological study ( Beebe et al . 2002 ; Beebe et al . 2013 ) demonstrating the probability of four bancroftii -related sibling species in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea .